1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brake pedal apparatus for an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a frontal collision of an automobile occurs and thereby a front portion of the vehicular body is largely deformed towards the rear side of the vehicular body, a lower portion side of a pendant pedal arm (a brake pedal) rotates to the rear side relative to the front portion of the vehicular body, causing a possibility that the lower portion side of the pedal arm may interfere with a driver. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-220934 (=JP2003220934) discloses an automobile which is provided with a locker in a front portion of a vehicular body for locking a pedal arm so that a lower portion of the pedal arm does not rotate to the rear side relative to the front portion of the vehicular body even when a frontal collision of an automobile occurs and thereby the front portion of the vehicular body is largely deformed towards the rear side of the vehicular body.
In the invention in the JP2003220934, the locker provided in the front portion of the vehicular body locks the pedal arm when the lower portion side of the pedal arm (the brake pedal) rotates to the front side once and moves closer to the front portion of the vehicular body due to deformation of the front portion of the vehicular body at an initial stage of a frontal collision of the automobile.
Incidentally, it is difficult to control deformation of a front portion of a vehicular body when an automobile has a frontal collision, and a deformed state of a front portion of a vehicular body differs depending on a situation or the like of a frontal collision.
Therefore, with a structure where a locker is provided in a front portion of a vehicular body like the invention of the JP2003220934, the position of the locker may be misaligned relative to a brake arm (a brake pedal) depending on a deformed state of a front portion of a vehicular body at a frontal collision of an automobile. Hence, the locker as a mechanism for preventing the brake arm from moving backward, as the case may be, fails to lock the brake arm reliably and unfailingly at the frontal collision of the automobile.